Cold
by Scarlett Moonchild
Summary: Re-posted!CH 2 up! A teen couple finds themselves stranded in the library with Sam & Laura, after the tidal wave drowns Manhattan. Can they put their differences aside long enough to survive? R&R!
1. Default Chapter

A/N: OK this is the revised Chapter 1. I changed the Spanish to French. Thanks for the head's up! If you see anything else "off", tell me plz and I'll correct it. If rougher language offends you, then this story might not be for you. This is Manhattan in an emergency situation. LOL, you understand. Read & review. Not my usual thing

**Disclaimer:** Day After Tomorrow not mine whatsoever. The new characters are. D&D is hellaciously fun to play, but not mine either.

**Summary:** The story of a teen couple also trapped in the library with Sam and the others during the super-storm. Rated PG-13 for death, language, etc.

COLD 

"Mom!" I yelled into the apartment, "I'm going out!" Grabbing my umbrella, I closed the door on the muffled reply. It didn't matter; I knew all she'd ask about was who I was with. And I didn't want her to know that.

I smiled and applied lip gloss as I strolled to the elevator. I punched the worn button with the "down" arrow painted on it, and waited.

C-r-e-a-k, Bang! And the elevator was here. I shivered as I stepped inside the older model elevator cab. "Why don't I ever take the damn stairs? This stupid thing is older than I am," I thought out loud as I pushed "L" for Lobby.

The elevator creaked and squeaked and shuddered its way down from the 18th floor. I nervously gripped the handrail, and the second I heard the "ding!" that indicated it had stopped, I rushed out into the lobby.

To meet Jason.

A boy with unruly red hair, pale skin with just enough freckles to be cute, and the build of a football player was chatting with James, the doorman, who regarded him a little nervously. I took note of the fact that he had on my favorite jacket, his black leather one with the spikes on the shoulders and chains on the pockets. There were also chains dangling from the pockets of his baggy-enough-to-be-trendy black pants. I smiled. My rebel, how I adored him.

And how my parents hated him. That, I thought to myself, was very much part of his attraction.

"Jason!" I called, picking up the pace a little. He turned and his face lit up as he took in my short black skirt, tall black boots, tight black Metallica tee and more feminine black leather jacket. The doorman frowned a little; after all, he'd known me since we'd moved here, at age 6. I'm sure at the voluptuous age of 17, I wasn't turning out exactly as anyone had hoped. Dating a 20 year old doesn't help either, I gather.

"Sarah, great. I was getting a little worried, babe." Jason gave me a long deep kiss on the lips, and shook hands with James. "Great talking to you sir, as always."

James gave him a rather unsavory glance as we walked past him and out into the chill, rainy wetness of the early afternoon. I laced my fingers through Jason's, to add to the effect, and secretly hoped the word would get back to my parents. I loved pissing them off.

As we strode through the downpour, Jason began talking about what happened in his gaming group the night before, and I lost interest pretty quickly. Dungeons and Dragons, while it fitted his image, did not suit my intellectual skills (hey, just because I enjoy being bad doesn't mean I'm not smart…I'm in some advanced classes in school), so I tried to nod in all the right places.

We passed a new coffee shop, and after planting an "Is that right?" into Jason's description of a rogue/bard he was playing, I interjected, "Let's go in here and sit for a bit. Get some coffee while we talk."

He smiled and squeezed my hand. "Sure babe. Just for a few though, we have to meet the guys at the movie in half an hour."

"That's fine," I agreed. Really I had just wanted something to do while I let him jaw on about his game. I cared about him, really I did…I just wasn't interested in him for his personality, let's say that much. Wink, wink. "I'm just cold."

He held the door for me, and commented, "You look awesome today, Sarah."

I knew I did. I had combed out my long dark hair carefully, and separated it into pigtails, then braided them and pinned them on top. "Thanks, Jas. You do too. You know I love it when you wear that jacket." He grinned at the compliment, as he shook out the umbrella.

We looked at the menu, and saw a lot of things neither of us had heard of. I ordered a turtle cappuccino, which ended up being cappuccino with whipped cream, chocolate and caramel syrup, and nuts on top. It rocked.

Jason started back in on their game, and I felt a little sick as I watched the people go by, pretending to listen. I had been sick two mornings in a row. Hoped I wasn't coming down with something. And God was it rainy lately. It had rained every day that week, and each day the raindrops seemed to get larger and colder. All the weather guy could say was that it was unusual for this time of year and that it might get worse.

I dunno, I never pay attention to the weather guy. Half the time he's wrong anyway.

I shivered again, and zipped up my jacket again. For some reason it was way cold in this shop. Jas had stopped talking, probably noticing I wasn't listening to the poor guy, and was looking at me with concern.

"You know, Sarah, you really should wear a heavier coat or something on cold days like this. You look a little sick."

I smiled weakly. "I'm just a little dizzy and cold, that's all. Let's pay for these and get moving again."

We paid for our coffees and opened the umbrella against the grey, overcast sky. I looked down at the ground, and tugged on Jason's sleeve. "Look at that!"

"What is it?" he looked down too. "Oh my God…"

The rain had been coming down for a few days now, and the streets were already mildly floody. But it looked like the water had risen a good two inches as we had sat in the coffee shop. It was beginning to slosh up over the side of the curb, and lick at our shoes.

"Jason, what is going on?" I started to panic a little. I guess I take after my Mom…she is never cool about anything. "Do you think we should just go back?"

"Don't know," he put his arm around me reassuringly. "I'm sure we're fine. The others might already be at the movie, and you know how Chad is. If we don't show, he'll be pissed."

"Fuck Chad!" I said with surprising fervor. "I'm not getting these boots ruined! Do you have any CLUE how much they cost?"

Jason gave me a look. "I'm sorry. I guess we can go back if you really want to. Wait. Look at the water now!" He pointed down at the ground, and I saw that the water was rising as I was watching.

I could literally, actually see the water climbing up the bricks of the building next to us, the library.

"Jason! What is this?" I started pawing him, frantically. "Why is the water doing this?"

Jason picked me up, umbrella and all, and began to carry me up the steps to the library. By the time we got to the door, and had turned back to look at the street, the water was really, really high.

"Oh my God! Look at all the cabs! Their wheels are all underwater!" I pointed in amazement.

Jason laughed as he pointed at a guy driving a bus. Or sitting there in a bus, anyway. "Yeah, that guy sure isn't going anywhere anytime soon."

The water continued to rise, as we watched. The people in the cabs had figured out that they were going to be marooned for a long time if they didn't get out, and were beginning to struggle to the surrounding buildings, to get a little higher off the ground. As we watched, the water began to cover the hoods of the cabs and cars. A couple of men had boarded the bus and were trying to pay the driver to get them out of there. Idiots, I shook my head. Like they can go anywhere.

Jason nudged me and pointed; I looked at what he saw. A cop was arguing with some people who were speaking a different language, sounded like Spanish. Apparently the people couldn't get out of the cab, and a child was crying loudly. The cop couldn't understand what they wanted, and was trying to tell them how to get out.

"Jas, you speak Spanish, right?" He nodded. "Go help them, see what's going on. They need to get out of that car."

He shook his head, and pointed again. "That's French, not Spanish. Besides, she looks like she's helping them." A girl in a dark overcoat and hat had broken away from the two guys she was wading with, and had made her way to where the cop was standing. As we watched, she talked with the cop, and then persuaded the people, in French, to cover their eyes so they could break the window and get them out. The people complied, and were freed.

As they made their way through the water to a nearby building, we heard screams coming from somewhere, and a loud rushing sound.

"What the-?" said Jason, confused. Then he screamed too. "Oh my GOD!" He pointed straight ahead.

I looked and nearly fell out on the steps. I finished Jason's sentence for him. "What the hell is that?!"

It was a huge WALL of water…hundreds of feet high…headed right for us.

A/N: Like it so far? I've already got the last chappie written too…now all's I need is the in-betweenies. Lol. R/R!


	2. Chapter Two

Disclaimer: DAT (Day After Tomorrow) not mine. Sam, Laura, & JD not mine. Sarah and Jason are mine.

Cold

Ch. 2

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I completely froze, right there on the library steps and watched a giant wave crash right toward me. Like, the kind you see on the beach, only it was beating a path through the skyscrapers of downtown Manhattan. The only thing I could think of was, "Bet that would make for great surfing."

Dumb, I know. Hey, try to think of something profound when you're staring your death in the face.

I felt hands yanking me backwards up the steps. "Come on, we have to find higher ground. NOW!" I took one last glance at the wave and made up my mind that I was not going to die today. Not yet, anyway. I sprinted up the steps, Jason pushing me from behind. I could hear people screaming, as the roar of the water got louder.

That meant it was getting closer.

I was almost at the revolving door of the library. I could hear loud bangs and crashes as cars and trucks and other vehicles were swept away by the great wall of water. I thought wildly, _What the hell is all this? What's going on?_

Then suddenly, I was inside. I paused momentarily and Jason gave me another shove. "Sarah! Up the stairs! Go!"

I blindly clambered up the stairs, as fast as my boots would let me. For the first time in my entire life, I actually wished I was a prep and wearing designer brand tennis shoes. I had just gotten to the top of the second flight of stairs when the water hit the library. Hard. I could hear glass shattering and metal clanging, as the water swept through the lower floors of the library, and as I watched, began to climb the stairs rapidly. The water was ice-cold, and we got royally drenched as the water splashed through the revolving door and the windows of the building.

Some of the people behind us weren't as lucky as us. They were either caught in the revolving door by the water, or were being carried away in the water's quick current, and I tried to muffle their screaming with my hands over my ears, as I watched them, open-mouthed in shock and fear.

"Keep going! We have to get as high as we can!" Jason took my right hand away and yelled in my ear, and I turned and kept climbing. Finally the water seemed to level off while we were on the second from the top floor of the building, and we joined the others craning to look out of the windows at the flood.

It was amazing. All you could see were the tops of the buildings. It was hard to believe that there was no traffic in Manhattan. Just…water.

I could not begin to imagine what had just taken place. I knew we had had a lot of rain in the past week, but there was nothing I had ever heard of that could cause a tidal wave in the middle of Manhattan.

Jason looked just as bewildered as I did, and a little sick. "Hun, what is it?" I asked him, placing my hand on his arm, soaked through under his leather jacket. "Are you all right?"

Jas looked at me with those gorgeous blue eyes of his, and I saw that they were clouded over with worry. "My Mom was out getting lunch with a client."

I started to crack a joke about how I hoped they liked soggy food, when I was hit with the realization of what Jason meant. "Oh my god," I said, sinking to the floor next to a cart full of books with shiny green spines. "Your Mom. My Dad! My Dad goes out for lunch everyday! Oh no!" I started to look wildly around me, almost as if I expected the other people huddled together, soggy and frightened, to tell me where they were. "Jason, you don't suppose they – I mean, that they might have – "

Jason put his finger on my lips. "Shhh." He took off his jacket and shivered, then draped it over my shoulders. "We don't know anything. We don't even know what the hell happened out there. All we know is that now we have to stay here until help arrives."

A woman who was sitting nearby, soaked to the bone and shivering, spoke up staunchly, "There will be no help."

"Excuse me?" a man next to her on the other side of the bookrack asked. His glasses had water droplets all over the lenses. I thought, _he probably doesn't have anything dry to wipe them off._

The woman coughed hoarsely and replied, "Did I stutter? There. Will. Be. No. Help."

The man gulped and replied, "You don't know that for sure. Any minute now, the…"

She gave him a withering look as she cut him off. "Did you see the size of that tidal wave? Who the hell do you think is going to be able to help us? The Coast Guard?"

The man gave her a dark look over the top of his glasses, and opened his mouth, as if to reply. Apparently he thought better of it, because he closed his mouth, sniffed at her, and moved on to sit somewhere else.

"Heh." The woman spat in the direction of his retreating form. "Some people think they know it all."

She was getting on my nerves. Bad. I glanced at Jason, and noticed he was still shivering. "Here," I shrugged out of his jacket. "I have my own jacket; keep yours."

"No." He placed it back on my shoulders.

"Jas! You're shivering! Put it back on." I shoved it at him.

He sighed and kissed me on the forehead. "I'm just trying to look out for you."

_Aww_, I thought. I kissed him back on the cheek. "Well, if you die of pneumonia, who'll look out for me?"

"Oh please!" snorted the lady I didn't like. "You're going to give me cavities over here."

I glared at her. "Let's go someplace else, Jason."

"Like where?" Jason nudged me. "Look around, this place is full to over-flowing."

He was right, the top two floors of the library were teeming with shaken, shivering, dripping survivors. I saw the girl who had been trying to get the French-speaking family out of the flooded taxicab. She was with the same two boys as earlier; all of them looked to be around my age or older. The family was over in another corner, huddling and speaking together. The kid was still crying loudly. They had been very lucky to get out of that car when they did.

I shuddered, remembering the people dying and dead, sweeping past in those cold floodwaters. Jason put his arms tighter around me, and I was grateful for the slight warmth.

The lady snorted again. "If you ask me, this place looks like a homeless shelter. Hmmph! This used to be a classy place, for a library."

I ignored her, and leaned back into my boyfriend. For the moment, we sat and shivered together, wondering what would become of us all.


End file.
